South Korea's consumer prices grew at the slowest pace in 14 years in October, affected by falls in costs of farming products, a government report showed Friday.The country's consumer price index rose 0.7 percent on-year in October, decelerating from a 0.8 percent on-year gain tallied in the previous month, according to the report by Statistics Korea.The October figure marked the slowest consumer price growth since July 1999 when it increased 0.3 percent. It was also the second straight month th

Nov. 1, 2013

North Korea's authoritarian leaders were to blame for the famine that killed hundreds of thousands in the 1990s, experts told U.N. investigators probing possible crimes against humanity in the secretive nation. Speaking at a hearing in Washington, two American experts said former leader Kim Jong Il's regime continued acquisitions of fighter jets and failed to increase food imports to make up for a shortfall in food.Andrew Natsios, a former administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Devel

North Korea Nov. 1, 2013

Toronto police said Thursday they have recovered a video deleted from a computer that appears to show Mayor Rob Ford smoking from a crack pipe.Police Chief Bill Blair said he was “disappointed” after viewing the video, but that there was nothing in the video that would provide grounds to press charges against the mayor of Canada's largest city. Ford faced allegations in May that he had been caught on video puffing from a glass crack pipe. Two reporters with the Toronto Star said they saw the vid

World News Nov. 1, 2013

Israeli warplanes attacked a shipment of Russian missiles inside a Syrian government stronghold, officials said Thursday, a development that threatened to add another volatile layer to regional tensions from the Syrian civil war. The revelation came as the government of President Bashar Assad met a key deadline in an ambitious plan to eliminate Syria's entire chemical weapons stockpile by mid-2014 and avoid international military action.The announcement by a global chemical weapons watchdog that

World News Nov. 1, 2013

South Korea's central bank on Thursday warned against a possible expansion of volatility in foreign stock fund flows as uncertainty over external economic conditions persists.Foreign capital has been flowing into South Korea as Asia's fourth-largest economy has been largely unfazed by financial market jitters in some emerging nations due to its relatively strong economic fundamentals. Foreigners extended their net buying binge for a record 44th straight session on Wednesday.The Bank of Korea (BO

Oct. 31, 2013

North Korea‘s population stands at 24.9 million, the 49th-largest in the world, a report by a United Nations fund showed Thursday.According to “State of World Population 2013” published by the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA), the North Korean population is expected to grow 0.5 percent in the 2010-15 period.It said that boys born during this five-year period could expect to live an average of 66 years, while the female life expectancy was estimated at 73 years.The latest findings also said a woman i

North Korea Oct. 31, 2013

South Korean stocks traded 0.66 percent lower late Thursday morning, as large-caps widened their losses led by airlines and shipbuilders, analysts said. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) declined 13.68 points to 2,045.90 as of 11:20 a.m.Korean Air Lines, the top air carrier, plunged more than 8 percent, a day after its announcement that it will provide liquidity worth 150 billion won ($141 million) to its troubled affiliate Hanjin Shipping.Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engin

Oct. 31, 2013

A Seoul court ruled Thursday that local civic groups are not liable for damages the state allegedly suffered during massive street rallies against imports of U.S. beef in 2008.The former Lee Myung-bak administration, seeking to advance the bilateral free trade agreement process with the United States, resumed American beef imports in April 2008. The decision sparked weeks of massive anti-government street protests, the so called "candlelight movement," as many people viewed it as a hasty decisio

Social Affairs Oct. 31, 2013

South Korea was re-elected as a member of the United Nations' Economic and Social Council, which oversees the majority of the international organization's financial resources, the foreign ministry said Thursday.In a vote at a U.N. general meeting that took place a day earlier, Seoul won the membership to the council for the 2014-15 period, along with three other Asian Pacific countries: China, Bangladesh and Kazakhstan, the ministry said. In the same vote, 14 other countries from different regio

Foreign Affairs Oct. 31, 2013

Nearly half of South Korea's listed companies saw their operating profit fall on-year in the third quarter, data showed Thursday, as the economic slump weighed down on builders and chemical firms.Of the 51 companies listed on the country's main stock market that announced their earnings for the July-September period, 23 firms suffered a decline in their net profit from a year earlier, according to the data by FnGuide.The financial information provider said the weak performances among local liste

Industry Oct. 31, 2013